Armand Cucciniello

Cucciniello is a graduate of Boston University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002. He later earned an M.A. from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.[2]

In 2006 Cucciniello moved to Baghdad, Iraq to work for Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). Shortly after, he was hired by the U.S. Department of State to work in the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. embassy, located in the former Republican Palace (Arabic: القصر الجمهوري al-Qaṣr al-Ǧumhūriy) of Saddam Hussein.[2] As such Cucciniello was made a non-career U.S. diplomat,[2] and became a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy[3] until 2010. He subsequently served in Islamabad, Pakistan, and later worked for the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and United States Forces Korea in South Korea.[4]

In a 2016 Op-Ed for USA Today, Cucciniello described then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's foreign policy as "America First," which subsequently became a cornerstone of Trump's campaign platform and later his presidential administration.